Back home over the Christmas period, the boom Wodonga product is brimming with excitement about next year 

“I think for us the development of our squad last year was so positive, we probably just scratched the surface on the development of our guys,” Ziebell said.

“I’m talking about guys like Jed Anderson, who had a career-best year, Jy Simpkin, Paul Ahern, Trent Dumont, even Benny Brown again.

“Then there’s the steady hands of our key backline in Scotty Thompson, Robbie Tarrant, they’re almost in career-best form and they’re probably heading towards the backend of their careers.

“So the continued improvement of our existing guys and the guys we’ve recruited as well, I think we did really well in the trade period with Jared Polac and Jasper Pittard (both ex-Port Adelaide).

“With Aaron Hall (Gold Coast Suns) and Dom Tyson (Melbourne) also coming in, it will add a few more strings to our bow.”

Ziebell, who turns 28 in February, has just posted a decade at AFL level, but he maintains the best is yet to come.

“It’s funny when you hit 30 in football, apparently you’re old,” he said.

“Some of our guys, like Shaun Higgins, have gone back-to-back in the best and fairest, he’s 30, guys are playing career-best footy and I think my best football is definitely still ahead of me.”

The Roos had a horror start in 2017, before finishing 15th, while they finished ninth last season.

Prior to that, the club had made three successive finals campaigns, including two preliminary finals losses in 2014 (Sydney) and 2015 (West Coast).